The visiting Chicago White Sox will attempt to end their three-game losing streak on Saturday when they face the Boston Red Sox in the second game of a three-game series.
Boston scored twice in the eighth inning to overcome a 2-1 deficit and post a 3-2 victory on Friday night. The Red Sox (76-78) entered the series with six losses in their past seven games.
“It’s good to see that grit and grind even though we’re eliminated (from playoff contention),” said Boston reliever Chris Martin, who earned the save Friday night. “These games right here carry over into next season, so we need to keep trying to win right now.”
The White Sox (58-96) have lost 10 of their past 13 games and 15 of their past 20.
Dylan Cease (7-8, 4.85 ERA) is scheduled to start for Chicago on Saturday. The right-hander, who went 14-8 with a 2.20 ERA last season, took the loss in his latest outing, a 4-0 setback against the Minnesota Twins on Sunday. He pitched six innings and gave up three runs on four hits.
Cease is set to make his 96th start since the beginning of the 2021 season.
“When you got a guy that doesn’t miss a start for four years, that’s pretty special,” White Sox manager Pedro Grifol said. “That doesn’t happen often. Very few guys out there who will do that. He’s extremely durable.
“We tend to always want more (from Cease) because he’s extremely talented, but what he does is pretty good. That’s a big part of it. He’s a relentless worker and takes pride in his craft. He’s going to continue to do what he’s got to do to be back where he was last year.”
Cease is 0-1 with a 9.98 ERA in four career starts against the Red Sox but has 23 strikeouts in 15 1/3 innings in those outings.
Nick Pivetta, another right-hander, is Boston’s scheduled starter. Pivetta (9-9, 4.48 ERA) spent much of the season in the bullpen and is 0-2 with a 4.41 ERA in 16 1/3 innings since he rejoined the rotation earlier this month. He allowed two runs on four hits and struck out six in 6 1/3 innings during Boston’s 3-2 loss to the Toronto Blue Jays on Sunday.
Pivetta has made seven career appearances against the White Sox (four starts) and is 1-0 with a 2.22 ERA. He retired the only batter he faced in his one appearance vs. Chicago this year, on June 23.
After shutting down rookie reliever Gregory Santos (right elbow inflammation) for the remainder of the season on Wednesday, the White Sox lost Michael Kopech for the year two days later.
The team announced that Kopech, a 27-year-old right-hander, had a cyst surgically removed from his right knee Friday morning. It’s the same knee Kopech had surgically repaired a year earlier.
Kopech ends the year 5-12 with a 5.43 ERA in 30 games (27 starts). He lost his rotation spot in September after a five-start stretch in which he never lasted five innings in an outing while compiling a 9.50 ERA.
“(The knee ailment) definitely affected him. To what extent, not real sure,” Grifol said. “Only he knows that. It had been bothering him the whole year.”
–Field Level Media